Percentage of sea area covered by ice. High concentration means that the sea area has more continuous ice fields and less open water.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

ASTER Global Digital Elevation Map

Maps of land cover classification display the Earth's natural and human-made landscapes as color-coded categories.

Credits: Images created by Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observations, using data provided by the MODIS Land Team and the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center.

Date: 2011

Sea surface temperature is a major factor for predicting weather. Where sea surface temperature is relatively high, water evaporates easily, adding moisture and heat energy to the atmosphere.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

Average monthly daytime land surface temperatures for 2001–2010 based on thermal infrared measurements made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite.

Credits: Images by Jesse Allen, NASA's Earth Observatory using data courtesy of the MODIS Land Group.

Date: 2001–2010

The speed of winds over the ocean surface.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

Monthly precipitation totals. N.B. Data is not available for high latitudes.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

Cloud fraction is the portion of Earth's surface covered by cloud relative to the portion of Earth not covered by cloud.

Credits: Imagery by Reto Stockli, NASA's Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

OTD Global Lightning Distributions.

Date: January 1999–December 1999

Bathymetry is the measurement of how deep the water is at various places and the shape of the land underwater.

Length of the day from sunrise to sunset at 21th day of the month.

The colors show how much sunlight (in Watts per square meter) fell on the Earth's surface during the given month.

Credits: Imagery by Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, based on FLASHFlux data. FLASHFlux data are produced using CERES observations convolved with MODIS measurements from both the Terra and Aqua satellite. Data provided by the FLASHFlux team, NASA Langley Research Center.

Date: January 2015–December 2015

Month's average sun elevation angle at 12:00 UTC.

Solar terminator separates the portion of the Earth experiencing daylight from that experiencing darkness.

The Tropic of Cancer is the most northerly circle of latitude on the Earth at which the Sun appears directly overhead at its culmination during the solstice at June 21 (± 1 day). It lies approximately 23.4° north of the Equator.

The Tropic of Capricorn is the most southerly circle of latitude on the Earth at which the Sun appears directly overhead at its culmination during the solstice at December 21 (± 1 day). It lies approximately 23.4° south of the Equator.

The Arctic Circle is located approximately 66.5° north of the Equator. Between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole is a region having at least one 24-hour period when the sun stays continuously above or below the horizon.

The Antarctic Circle is located approximately 66.5° south of the Equator. Between the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole is a region having at least one 24-hour period when the sun stays continuously above or below the horizon.

Latitude midway between the north and south poles.

Derived from "Map of the world in an equirectangular projection with Tissot's Indicatrix of deformation" by Eric Gaba. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. Derived map is licensed under the same license.

The Blue Marble: Next Generation is a series of images that show the color of the Earth’s surface for each month of 2004.

Credits: Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory.

Date: January 2004–December 2004